ExxonMobil to Invest in Australian Coal Seam Gas

By

David Winning

Jun 6, 2012 12:04 pm EDT

ExxonMobil is preparing to open up a new frontier for the coal seam gas industry in Australia.

In doing so, it may help reshape the debate around unconventional fuels that has increasingly pitted the energy industry against farmers and prompted legislators to make large tracts of land off limits to exploration and production.

Exxon is setting up a joint venture with closely held Ignite Energy Resources to explore and potentially develop coal reserves of methane gas occurring naturally within more than 16 billion tons of brown coal close to the surface in the Gippsland Basin of southeast Victoria, and over 280 billion tons in deeper seams.